A month after Thorpe Park closed its gates to the public, work is underway across the island to check all of the rides are safe to operate, fix and paint areas of the park. Anything that can’t be done with guests around, gets done during the closed season. Each year we take a look across the lake and a walk down monks walk to check up and report what we can see going on behind closed doors.
The start of the 2019 closed season appears to be calm around the island from what we can see. With nothing major to report on, we are only one month into the 5 month period where the park is closed. Looking across the lake we can see that Rush has had some of its cables removed and the restraints on the seats have been removed to be checked. Over at Vortex, the ride closed early at the end of the theme park season due to technical issues, the ride has now been stripped down to its metal framework.
The queue time entrance sign for the ride states it will be returning for 2020 so don’t fear we haven’t lost another flat ride! Other small changes in the area include the Fright Nights maze, Do or Die being removed. The cars on Zodiac being removed and Colossus having a jet wash. Saw The Ride was also having work done to it during our walk around the outside of the park. Engineers could be seen working on the second break run of the ride. Possibly removing the breaks for inspection.
Colossus also appears to be having work done to the barrel roll element, scaffolding can be seen poking up the top of the old saw the maze boat. We expect this is just for access to high elements of the ride. Walking down towards Nemesis from the old Loggers Leap ride. Platform 15 is still setup along with signs for Creek Freak still installed. We’d love to see Creek Freak make a return for the main 2020 season. However, we don’t think that would happen. Rocky Express has been removed, pending its closed season strip down. The teacups ride has had the ride cars and floor removed. Rumba Rapids appears to be getting more work than normal this year. With one of the pumps currently removed and people walking in and out of the attraction with tools. And of course, all of the boats for the ride can be seen down monks walk.
At Nemesis, train number two can be seen sat on the break run. Some rows without restraints. We suspect the other train is in the maintenance building getting stripped down. Some scaffolding can also be seen around some sections of the ride. This is normal when high sections of the ride need extra work. It also appears that the smoke effect in the tunnel is being upgraded. Some old special effects kit can be seen in the bin labeled tunnel smoke machine. Of course all of this work is just a glimpse of what’s going on inside the park. There’s many things we can’t see like trains being stripped down and being sent off for inspections. We look forward to seeing what the park has to offer in the 2020 season. And what investments we might see!
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